WonderCon 2011: Clone Wars Panel

The tagline for season three of The Clone Wars was “Secrets Revealed,” and they definitely showed some of their hand. The secrets that were revealed have only sparked more mysteries. Supervising Director Dave Filoni came to WonderCon with some special guests to talk about season three and the finale and how far the characters have come. There have been 66 episodes of The Clone Wars so far (an ominous number for Jedi), and Filoni hopes to keep pushing that number upward.

Moderator Pablo Hidalgo talked about how the show has really developed over the last three season. The visual effects keep getting more advanced, and the characters have visited a variety of locations. He also pointed out that Padawan Ahsoka Tano particularly has grown up and come a long way in this last season. He then introduced Dave Filoni and Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka. Filoni is really proud that they have kept pushing the envelope. He pointed out that the first time they had a panel for Clone Wars at WonderCon, the audience was only half the size of the one in the room. They are obviously doing something right. He said that one reason the show is so great is because the crew treats it like making a movie instead of a television show.

Hidalgo asked Eckstein about the evolution of Ahsoka Tano. Eckstein said she’s made a lot of progress in season three. She recognized that Ahsoka was maybe a little immature and snippy in the beginning, but that was for a reason. Filoni said it was always the plan to mature her. One example of this that Filoni mentioned is that she doesn’t really call Anakin “Sky Guy” anymore even though he still calls her “Snips.” Eckstein also said in season three she has used her lower register to voice Ahsoka instead of being as peppy and high-pitched. Filoni said he told her “to take all that cute, put it in a little ball, and throw it away.”

The season three finale featured Chewbacca, and to everyone’s surprise, Peter Mayhew joined the panel. He walked in to a standing ovation. Hidalgo had the audience do their best Wookiee noises for him. Mayhew said he was very surprised when he learned that Chewbacca would be on The Clone Wars. He mentioned that he wasn’t sure if he could do the voice (and made a few Chewbacca noises for the room), but his wife told him he had to. When they decided to bring him to The Clone Wars the first things they did was visit the archives with Mayhew and pull out the Wookiee’s costume. It was incredibly important to Filoni that they really capture the character of Chewbacca and keep The Clone Wars interpretation of the Wookiee as close to the films as possible. Mayhew’s assistance was crucial for this.

The final special guest was Joel Aron, CG Supervisor, for the series. He was brought over from ILM to work on the show to make the series look more cinematic. He thinks the two episodes of the season finale really look like a feature film. He took the audience through a slideshow of the episode. It was a visual experience, and the slides showed how the layers of the scenes are built up and how the lighting is added. He closed his segment with a teaser for season four. Watch it on <a href=http://www.starwars.com/video/view/001247.html>StarWars.com</a>.

The panel closed with questions from the audience. Filoni gave a disclaimer that he couldn’t answer questions about future things, but that didn’t stop people from asking. He did say that fans would see Asajj Ventress again, and it sounds like the Savage Opress and Darth Maul story will be resolved. Stay tuned for season four to learn more!